This book, Essays in Search of Understanding, covers a wide range of topics from “Puzzles and Problems in Buddhism” to so-called “unconditional love.” Many of them are short and pithy, meant more as discussion starters than as something authoritative and final. But all of them reflect considerable thought and inquiry. Thoughts and lines of argument which may well both spark your own interest and further your own thinking on these topics. But the book is not an exercise in technical or academic philosophy. Reading and understanding it does not require an advanced degree in philosophy, it only requires an interest in any of the various subject matters and a willingness to wrestle with ideas. The shortness of many of the essays and their open-endedness are meant to invite the reader into an evening's discussion. It can often be both challenging and enlightening to come to 'see' what you actually believe about a topic or, even more surprising, what your beliefs about a particular subject commit you to believing about still other subjects. Enjoy!

This book explores a large gap in English-speaking philosophy by investigating the neglected concept of understanding and linking it to the much-discussed concept of knowledge. Focusing on the process of coming to understand, it concludes that understanding is in fact the most important form of knowledge. It then further explores the important implications that arise both within philosophy and outside it. Because of its relevance to problems faced by many disciplines, it is written without technical terms in a style accessible to non-philosophers.

"Published Essays, 1966-1985 includes some of the most trenchant and compelling of Eric Voegelin's work and is an indispensable companion to his Anamnesis and to the fourth and fifth volumes of Order and History, which were prepared for publication during the same period, the last two decades of the author's life. These essays are quintessential Voegelin.Voegelin was an essayist at heart, and the pieces gathered here bear on almost every aspect of his philosophy. They range in subject matter and tone from a scalding critique of the German intellectual establishment during the Hitler period and a satire upon contemporary vulgarian culture to magisterial analyses of immortality, reason, and consciousness. The essays also embrace Voegelin's elaboration of the theory of equivalent experiences and symbolizations over human history and his meditation upon the lure of extremes in the rebellion of magic against reason in various modernist attacks on culture. The scope of Voegelin's work is magnified by the collection's final essay, a touching and profound deathbed reflection on God". --

Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Volume Two, reflects the refinements in scholarship and philosophical analysis that have impacted classical philosophy in recent years. It is a selection of the best papers presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy during the last decade. The papers presented indicate a shift in accent from a predominant preference for the application of linguistic methods in the study of texts to a more intensified concern for contextual examinations of philosophical concepts. The works of both younger scholars and senior authors show a more liberal, yet controlled, use of historical and cultural elements in interpretation. The papers also reflect advances in scholarship in adjacent fields of Greek studies. From pre-Socratic to post-Aristotelian philosophers, the papers in this volume are intended to stimulate interest in the major accomplishments of classical philosophers. This work augments its companion volume Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy.

This book presents a collection of interrelated essays that analyze the theoretical foundations of semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology written by one of the pioneers in this field of research: Dr. Lívia Mathias Simão, senior professor at the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. In each of the five essays included in this book, the author establishes a dialogue with key thinkers and intellectual traditions of dialogical approaches arriving at core points of I-other relationships according to the perspective of semiotic-cultural constructivism in psychology. The first essay establishes a dialogue with Greek philosophers such as Parmenides and Aristotle. In the second essay this dialogue is established with semiotic-constructivist psychologists such as Jaan Valsiner, Ragnar Rommetveit and Ivana Marková. The third essay is a dialogue with the contributions of Ernst Boesch’s symbolic action theory. The fourth essay proposes a dialogue between semiotic-cultural constructivists and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. Finally, the fifth essay proposes how the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas contributes to dialogical studies of I-other in the context of semiotic-cultural constructivism. Originally published in Portuguese for the Brazilian market, Dialogical Essays: From Difference to Sharing in I-Other Relationships is now published in English in an international edition that will be of interest to psychologists, philosophers, historians and other human and social scientists interested in epistemological, ontological and ethical aspects of I-other relationships from the perspective of semiotic-cultural constructivism and cultural psychology.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by The Millions Lively, insightful writings on Black music, feminism, literature, and events from a “masterful critic and master teacher” (Walton Muyumba, Boston Globe). In Search of a Beautiful Freedom brings together the best work from Farah Jasmine Griffin’s rich forays on music, Black feminism, literature, the crises of Hurricane Katrina and COVID-19, and the Black artists she esteems. She moves from evoking the haunting strength of Odetta and the rise of soprano popular singers in the 1970s to the forging of a Black women’s literary renaissance and the politics of Malcolm X through the lens of Black feminism. She reflects on pivotal moments in recent American history—including the banning of Toni Morrison’s Beloved—and celebrates the intellectuals, artists, and personal relationships that have shaped her identity and her work. Featuring new and unpublished essays along with ones first appearing in outlets such as the New York Times and NPR, In Search of a Beautiful Freedom is a captivating collection that celebrates the work of “one of the few great intellectuals in our time” (Cornel West).

An extremely suitable focus for the study of Leibniz's thought and of the traditions of rationalism and empiricism in relation to one another.